New findings show end of nodding disease epidemic

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Researchers at Makerere University have released new research findings on Nodding disease declaring that the epidemic left more than 10% of sufferers severely disabled.

Releasing the findings on Tuesday, Richard Idro a Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health told journalists that they have also found that the commonly available antibiotic Doxycycline is highly effective in preventing infection-induced severe seizures which are responsible for nodding syndrome deaths.

The study was embarked on in 2012 and monitoring of cases has continued to date. Findings show no new case of the syndrome caused by the filarial worm technically referred to as onchocerca volvulus has been identified.

While nodding syndrome affected northern Uganda more, some cases were found in areas of Kasese and Kabarole districts because of the high prevalence of the worm in those areas. Now, Idro says they are realizing that children who are infected by the fly early in life, are at risk of suffering from Nodding disease and those infected later in life, they are more likely to develop other forms of epilepsy.

Currently, the average prevalence of epilepsy in Uganda is estimated at 1 percent of the population and yet in Northern Uganda where nodding disease is heavily struck, prevalence is more than double estimated at 2.7%. Meanwhile, 40% of survivors live with mild disability, 50% with a moderately severe disability whereas 10% are severely disabled and they have to entirely depend on caregivers for all sorts of support.

Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng says they plan to open up rehabilitation centers for those affected such that their caregivers can be able to go out and work. She says the responsibility of developing this infrastructure has been handed to the Ministry of Gender, labor, and Social Development.

However, these results come at a time when several members of parliament have complained that people in their constituencies are getting newly infected with the nodding disease as the government looks on without providing the necessary interventions.

But Aceng says politicians need to accept that there are no new cases of the disease and samples were investigated contrary to claims that children are still helplessly getting infected.  She notes that they plan to hold a meeting with the Acholi and Lango parliamentary groups to share with them the findings.

One of the interventions that she says has helped them is the bi-annual mass drug administration with ivermectin tablets and providing larvicides to eliminate the disease-causing black fly.  According to her,  politicians need to understand that no intervention can end disease transmission immediately but it’s rather a process.

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